The Cigale is an easy prey during its hours of somnolence.  Every Cigale encountered by the ferocious grasshopper on its nocturnal round must miserably perish.  Thus are explained those sudden squeaks of anguish which are sometimes heard in the boughs during the hours of the night and early morning, although the cymbals have long been silent.  The sea-green bandit has fallen upon some slumbering Cigale.  When I wished to rear some green grasshoppers I had not far to seek for the diet of my pensioners; I fed them on Cigales, of which enormous numbers were consumed in my breeding-cages.  It is therefore an established fact that the green grasshopper, the false Cigale of the North, will eagerly devour the true Cigale, the inhabitant of the Midi.

But it is neither the sparrow nor the green grasshopper that has forced the Cigale to produce such a vast number of offspring.  The real danger is elsewhere, as we shall see.  The risk is enormous at the moment of hatching and also when the egg is laid.

Two or three weeks after its escape from the earth—­that is, about the middle of July—­the Cigale begins to lay.  In order to observe the process without trusting too much to chance, I took certain precautions which would, I felt sure, prove successful.  The dry Asphodelus is the support preferred by the insect, as previous observations had assured me.  It was also the plant which best lent itself to my experiments, on account of its long, smooth stems.  Now, during the first years of my residence in the South I replaced the thistles in my paddock by other native plants of a less stubborn and prickly species.  Among the new occupants was the asphodel.  This was precisely what I needed for my experiments.  I left the dry stems of the preceding year in place, and when the breeding season arrived I inspected them daily.

I had not long to wait.  As early as July 15th I found as many Cigales as I could wish on the stems of the asphodel, all in process of laying.  The gravid female is always solitary.  Each mother has her twig to herself, and is in no danger of being disturbed during the delicate operation of laying.  When the first occupant has departed another may take her place, and so on indefinitely.  There is abundance of room for all; but each prefers to be alone as her turn arrives.  There is, however, no unpleasantness of any kind; everything passes most peacefully.  If a female Cigale finds a place which has been already taken she flies away and seeks another twig directly she discovers her mistake.

The gravid female always retains an upright position at this time, as indeed she does at other times.  She is so absorbed in her task that she may readily be watched, even through a magnifying glass.  The ovipositor, which is about four-tenths of an inch in length, is plunged obliquely and up to the hilt into the twig.  So perfect is the tool that the operation is by no means troublesome.  We see the Cigale tremble slightly, dilating and contracting